Friday, April 15, 2016

Il Était Un Vernis A Thousand Kisses

Like Spring in My Step, A Thousand Kisses was released last month by French boutique polish maker Il Était Un Vernis as part of the Tales of Love collection for spring 2016, a series of polishes that share a pink to copper to gold color-shifting shimmer element. In a post about the collection on her blog Vernis En Folie, co-creator Bé elegantly describes A Thousand Kisses as "a very light pink tutu tulle, wispy and glittering both." It's a diaphanous cool-toned nude pink, more pink than nude in the balance, gently underlaid by palest milky lavender -- rather like a queen pink, with a built-in translucence to the formula that I've not seen before from Il Était Un Vernis. Luminous infinitesimal particles of holographic pigment give it an exquisite twinkle in most all circumstances, and gleaming microflake shimmers in pink and gold appear and disappear, mirage-like, from within the polish as light travels over them. Direct sun brightens the hues of these color-shifting flakes along the axis of light, and renders a certain opalescent quality to the look of the semi-translucent polish that was impossible to capture in a photo.

Application was great! The consistency of A Thousand Kisses is fluid, light and creamy with a medium viscosity and a silky, self-leveling slip over the nail. As I mentioned, this polish has an unusually translucent formula for the brand, which helps to render the pale, delicate color without the heaviness that might accompany a white-based formula. It does require a bit more attention to its application, being sheer with a slight proclivity to streakiness that went on best for me in thin to medium coats from a bead-loaded brush using the lightest touch possible. Any irregularities in the first coat even out very well to wearably opaque coverage with the second, and I would certainly wear it at two coats were I not photographing it. For the photos, I added a third coat. Cleanup is easy and straightforward. A Thousand Kisses dries naturally in very good time to a smooth shiny finish.

Photos show three coats of A Thousand Kisses over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.

Il Était Un Vernis A Thousand Kisses

Il Était Un Vernis A Thousand Kisses

Il Était Un Vernis A Thousand Kisses

Il Était Un Vernis A Thousand Kisses

Il Était Un Vernis A Thousand Kisses

Il Était Un Vernis A Thousand Kisses

Il Était Un Vernis A Thousand Kisses

Il Était Un Vernis A Thousand Kisses

Il Était Un Vernis A Thousand Kisses

Il Était Un Vernis A Thousand Kisses

Il Était Un Vernis A Thousand Kisses

Il Était Un Vernis A Thousand Kisses

Il Était Un Vernis A Thousand Kisses

Il Était Un Vernis A Thousand Kisses

Such a beautiful milky pink! On me, A Thousand Kisses is definitely a YNBB (Your Nails But Better) sort of shade, but I imagine it would lean to more of a pale cherry blossom pink on richer skintones. My complexion is not hospitable to pastels, so I am very pleased to find a pale pink like this that simulates a pastel to a certain extent without actually being a white-based polish. My collection has something of a short bench when it comes to traditional spring-like shades.